Back from camping!

Just a quick note: I've returned from the woods!

It was an absolutely wonderful trip, and I think Matt and I will be doing quite a bit more backpacking in the future. Which is fantastic!

Less great: I ended up pulling a muscle or something really badly in my leg on the way out of the woods, and so I've taken up semi-permanent residence on the couch over the last couple of days. I could have probably used some of that time to catch up on Dreamwidth entries, but I've been frantically working through some algebra review before I have to get back to work.



We hiked a total of 21 miles together, and it was a wonderful time just to be together and talk about our lives and reconnect. There's some serious, major bonding that happens when you walk into the woods with someone, and you both like being there.

We talked about distance. It sounds like he's interested in building his network in other parts of the country, partially so that when I'm done with my master's program we'll have more flexibility in where we move. Which makes sense. We talked about ways to make a couple months together, then a couple months apart, work better in our relationship.

I think as long as we can still celebrate the seasons, the big moments, set aside time every week to have a long distance "date" - even if that's just a half hour conversation - we'll be ok. And these are all things he's been thinking about too. He's talking about heading to New Mexico for several weeks this fall/winter, hoping to get on a feature down there with some of his contacts. He said he definitely wants to try to sublet some place that has wifi, so we could actually keep in touch via skype. This would be a HUGE improvement . The film he was on that took him away for 8 weeks earlier this year was a traveling film, so he was staying at hotels in locations between Muskogee, Oklahoma and Williston, North Dakota. And because he was moving around so much, there wasn't an internet connection, their shooting schedule got really far off, so his time off wasn't predictable.

Him having a sublet doesn't solve all the problems - but it is helpful. It will make it much easier for us to set aside time to communicate privately (he also had roommates a lot while he was on the road before). And I think that this time, it will be easier for me to be apart from him, because I'll have more going on career-wise. The worst of the loneliness kicked in after the rally I was working on was through, and I was severely unemployed.

We're also exploring opening up our relationship.

So I'm bi/multi-sexual, and am actually more attracted to women than to men. When I met Matt, he knew this and for some time we were polyamorous - I was looking to meet a woman specifically when I met him. We fell in love and became monogamous because it felt right. Now, it feels right to be moving back toward polyamory - not because we don't still love one another, but because that's what feels best. It's just another development in our relationship.

Things that are not so huge that we talked about:

1. We talked a lot about food and poop. Naturally.
2. Writing, especially science fiction.
3. Read each other ghost stories curated by Roald Dahl.
4. Gaming - specifically, Dungeons and Dragons. He's considering writing a game book.
5. Climate change - specifically, climate change blogging and writing. I have an idea for a climate change blog, and we brainstormed around that.
6. Dreaming about career stuff and building a home together.
7. Future travel plans, including backpacking trips, and some short getaways.
8. LOTS of joking around. Like, wow. We got goofy.

Anyway, I'm off - going to explore the world outside the couch, see if my leg is healed up enough for a social gathering tonight.